U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called on some 70 nations Wednesday to immediately step up data sharing to help border agents thwart would-be foreign fighters from reaching Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State.
With the knowledge that Americans and citizens of other nations are seeking to travel to the Middle East to fight jihad with the group’s extremists and terrorists, “the need for the global community to stand together in combating this threat has never been more apparent,” Holder told attendees at the White House summit on countering violent extremism.
“In a globalized society that is more interconnected today than ever before, we have a mutual and compelling interest in developing shared strategies for confronting this threat,” he said.
He said that the White House “ministerial” provides an opportunity to “take concrete steps” to improve sharing of information about fugitives, terror suspects and young people radicalized by internet appeals from the Middle East.
Holder said the Justice Department will detail personnel, including FBI officials, to support a Fusion Cell operated by the global police agency Interpol that focuses on information-sharing related to foreign fighters.
He urged participants to promptly take three other measures:
--Link their nations’ front-line border control systems to Interpol’s databases so that scans of passports will “hit against” Interpol’s round-the-clock system of notices for fugitives and suspects.
--Redouble their commitment to contribute to, and scan against, Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Document Database.
--Strengthen their bilateral sharing efforts with the Justice Department’s Terrorist Screening Center, which provides foreign terrorist fighter information as well as identifying known or suspected terrorists.
“We gain a strong and clear advantage when we leverage our resources in support of our common goals,” Holder said.